Focusing on widespread barriers to care, these three, short video excerpts from our acclaimed HEALTHCARE STORIES series feature stories about inaccessible examination tables and weight scales and healthcare provider misperceptions and stereotypes. Advocates and practitioners alike recount their personal experiences and recommend actions for improving care. These downloadable videos present an all-important human perspective and affirm the barriers to care identified in a decade of research.
Watch the videos.
Policies and Procedures
Luise Custer and Charlie Tygiel
Luise Custer lives in San Francisco, California and is Charlie Tygiel’s mother. Charlie, who has developmental disabilities including a seizure disorder, shares a home with roommates in Santa Cruz, California.
Fred Nisen
Fred Nisen, an attorney with a statewide nonprofit legal organization, lives in Berkeley, California. He has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair.
Dr. Clarissa Kripke, Susan Lee, Gordon and Aaron Reetz
Aaron Reetz, his father, Gordon Reetz and step-mother, Susan Lee live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aaron is autistic and has developmental disabilities. Dr. Clarissa Kripke is on the clinical faculty of the University of California, San Francisco and is Director of Developmental Primary Care
Carol Gill and Larry Voss
Larry Voss and Carol Gill, long-time residents of the Chicago area, both had polio and use wheelchairs. In six video segments, they candidly describe encounters with healthcare professionals and systems that were ill-equipped to provide the care they needed.
Michael Ogg
Michael Ogg, a wheelchair user who lives in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, has Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.
"I have frequent visits to a doctor's office, neurologist, physiatrist, urologist, you name it, primary care, you name it. I see quite a few doctors and not one of them has a way of weighing me."
Jim LeBrecht
Jim LeBrecht, a wheelchair user who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has spina bifida.
Dianne Collins
Diane Collins, a retired medical doctor and Geriatrician, is also a person who had polio as a child. She lives on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois.
Mary Smith
Mary Smith, a wheelchair user who lives in Oakland, California, has Arthrogryposis Multiple Congenita.